Claire Now Needs Zeal Elsewhere

The Dodgers threw a nice little luncheon at their stadium club Monday, and a nasty metaphor broke out.

Inside, surrounding by twinkling lights and smiling relatives, perfectly manicured Todd Zeile promised he would be a worthy final move in the Dodgers’ winter restructuring.

Outside, it was raining cats and Dodger second basemen.

Inside, Fred Claire said the team was not worried about showing up in Vero Beach with questions at second base and center field.

Outside, you couldn’t walk to your car without hip waders.

The good news for Dodger fans is that Santa Clarita’s Zeile was born on the day Sandy Koufax threw his perfect game, grew up with tickets in the orange seats, and is blessed with a father who didn’t believe he was in the major leagues until Vin Scully announced his name on the radio.

“A perfect fit,” proclaimed Claire, and he was right.

But speaking of fits, nothing else does.

Not Brett Butler in center field.

Not Roger Cedeno on the bench.

Not a dozen different guys at second, among them candidates Nelson Liriano and Jeff Berblinger. The first guy has played for every team twice; the second guy is unknown, but sounds vaguely like an antacid.

A day that began with a highlight video, Zeile’s, ended with an ominous quote, Claire’s, when the Dodger vice president was asked if he was finished making moves.

“Basically,” he said.

That he filled his third base vacancy with a guy who can drive in 100 runs from the sixth hole is admirable.

That he is taking the phone off the hook until February is dangerous.

Not that Claire didn’t spend $9.5 million wisely.

Zeile is such a prototype Dodger, it was surprising he didn’t show up in a straw hat.

He has the good looks of Eric Karros. He has the soft voice of Mike Piazza. He hits balls to the wall, steals one base a year, gives tickets to sick kids.

He even has the Hollywood wife, former Olympic gymnast Julianne McNamara, who said Monday that, “I know people see that he’s so nice, and mistake that for not being tough, but he’s the toughest person I know.”

Coming from someone who can survive more than 10 seconds on uneven bars, we believe it.

But these Dodgers appear far from a Hollywood ending.

Start with Butler.

They had no choice last week but to give him a $2-million, make-good contract.

(Fine, you cut loose a guy only three months after he returned from cancer surgery to provide the team with its most inspirational moment of the season.)

Butler, of course, has to decide whether to compete for the contract.

It is hoped here that he will not.

Butler will be 40 next year, which is old if you are anything but a knuckleball pitcher, and really old if you are a center fielder and leadoff hitter.

He belongs with the Dodgers, forever. He is a true role model. But with the maturing of Cedeno, this role must change from player to teacher.

Butler would be perfect as a coach, or special instructor, or in any capacity in which he can show youngsters how a little guy can last 16 years.

If Butler goes to spring training trying to win a starting job and that $2 million, three things can happen:

--He can play well enough to return to the starting lineup for the beginning of a long, grueling season.

--He can play only well enough to force a tough, distracting decision between him and Cedeno.

--He can lose the job to Cedeno, at which point he will say he doesn’t want to sit on the bench.

Two of those three outcomes are lousy.

Compared to the way he finished last season before breaking his hand, a cancer comeback story for the Dodger history books, all three outcomes pale.

Remember, the only reason Zeile was not playing for the Dodgers last fall was that Claire was unwilling to deal Cedeno to acquire him.

If the 22-year-old kid with plenty of speed and defense was ready then, he is ready now.

It would be a shame this spring if Butler were not in a Dodger uniform. But it would also be a shame if he were donning that uniform as a struggling veteran when he could be doing it as an esteemed coach.

One of his first jobs? Teach Cedeno to bat leadoff.

At least the Dodgers have somebody to play center field.

They are still looking for help at second base and appear satisfied to close the checkbook and rely on . . . Juan Castro?

This kid who batted .197 in 70 games there for the Dodgers last year is the early favorite among a group of youngsters and journeymen at that position.

Rather than sign a free agent like Mark McLemore or trade for somebody like Tony Phillips, the Dodgers are going to take a chance on their own.

“I remember one year a guy came up from double-A to the big leagues . . . a guy named Steve Sax,” Claire said. “You never know.”

Claire was referring to what the Dodgers think may be their best chance for a sixth consecutive rookie of the year, a second baseman named Wilton Guerrero. Their scouts are working overtime on him in the Dominican, where he is batting .323 after hitting .344 last year at Albuquerque.

But scouts are worried that he is another Jose Offerman. He moved from shortstop last year, and his fielding skills have not totally followed him.

Before last weekend, Guerrero was a risk.

Now, with the smart upgrading of a stretch-dying offense, the Dodgers are possibly just a good-fielding second baseman away from a championship.

Now, having watched their new third baseman cavort around the Christmas tree Monday, that risk seems like an outright gamble.